Sunday, July 29, 2007

754...

It’s been several years since I turned on a TV. Even when I was on my bike ride a few weeks ago, and spent several nights in hotels, I never turned on the TV. This is not a judgment call or statement at all, but I always feel like I’m wasting time. I used to waste a lot of time. I’d feel like sitting for a moment and turn on the tv, and a moment would turn into a few hours. I never really made a decision to stop watching. I just gradually turned it on less. Thus, I only rarely wish I had at least an antennae just in case I want to see something. When I was a kid, I cut grass to make some money. I always saved for the guitar acquisition. Back then, cutting grass paid a lot less than now, and a descent guitar cost more than it does now. Often I cut several neighborhood yards a day. One of the most vibrant memories of things tied together for me as a child involves baseball and cutting grass. As a matter of fact, those two things make up the bulk of my memories of a few years of my childhood. My neighbor and I played ball in the side yard everyday, invisible man games, homerun derby, run-down, etc. And we collected baseball cards. The rest of my time, as I remember it, was spent cutting grass. The two activities collided in the days leading to Hank Aaron’s matching and breaking Babe Ruth’s career homerun record. Even in those day’s I didn’t have a lot of tolerance for just sitting in front of the TV, so about the only time I watched ballgames was when something big was about to happen. Correct or not, (it was early April, and apparently after dark), I remember rushing through a lawn to try and finish before the Braves v Dodgers game began. As a ten year-old, I thought the world would explode when Aaron hit #715. Imagine someone breaking a record set by the fabled giant back before time began. Here was a black man from Alabama actually making people angry at the prospect of breaking a white man’s record. It was a glorious moment to witness. So here I am today with no cable or antenna, watching the one sentence inning reports on ESPN dot com. Once again shrouded in controversy, this time, concerning doping, Barry Bonds is poised to tie Hank. So far he struck out swinging in the first inning and popped out to second in the third. Do you feel the excitement? I think I’ll go cut the grass.